“DOWN IN THE FLOOD: BOB DYLAN AND THE BAND”— The Stroy of Bob Dylan and the Band-

Amos ♦ August 19, 2012 ♦ Leave Your Comment

Bob Dylan & The Band “Down In The Flood” 

The Story Of Bob Dylan & The Band  

Amos Lassen

I have always been a huge Bob Dylan fan and even once had the pleasure of being at a party at his home in New Orleans at Audubon Place when he lived there for a short time. I remember this well because it was after one of the few performances he did live with the Band— Garth Hudson, Ronnie Hawkins, Charlie McCoy, Barney Hoskyns, Sid Griffin and others were all there and this was during Dylan’s Jewish period. The party started with a Havdalah service, the traditional way we bid the Sabbath good-bye and begin another week. I had not thought about that evening in years but when I received the new DVD of “Before the Flood”, it all came back to me. Those were the days. I was fresh out of college and working on my M.A. when we got the word that Dylan bought a house in New Orleans and he would be there for that summer. Anyone who knew anyone who knew Dylan or someone who knew began to find ways to get invited to the house. I don’t remember how I managed to get there but it was a wonderful moment.

In 1966, Dylan went electric (to the dismay of many) and in order to get him on the stage it took a group of Canadian musicians who were then known as The Hawks. They met Dylan when he was in New York in the Catskills and it was there that the Hawks became The Band and a new era in music began. Dylan was electric as were The Hawks and a relationship between them grew. They made “The Basement Tapes” and other recordings together in Woodstock, New York and they continued together during the 1970’s.

The DVD features new interviews with Garth Hudson;  Band producer John Simon; The Hawks’ 66 tour drummer, Mickey Jones; the man who assembled and tutored the Hawks and from whom they took their name, Ronnie Hawkins; Dylan guitarist, Charlie McCoy; Band biographer Barney Hoskyns; Basement Tapes Archivist, Sid Griffin, Isis magazine’s Derek Barker and Rolling Stone’s Anthony De Curtis. There is also rare footage, interviews from the archives, rare photographs and the music that changed the music industry. If you love Dylan and/or The Band, you do not want to miss this.